STORMY STREETS; RAIN BRINGS TRAFFIC SNAGS TO SOUTHLAND.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

A Pacific storm hit Southern California on Tuesday, racking up a spate of car crashes and traffic jams, but leaving the area without any major damage from floods and mudslides.

The storm brought less than an inch of rain to the Los Angeles Basin. Weather spotters reported about a quarter-inch in Woodland Hills and at the Civic Center, where the season-to-date total reached 4.16 inches, less than half of the normal 8.72 inches.

The bulk of the storm was expected to clear out by 4 a.m. today, with scattered showers possible in the mountains throughout the morning.

``As the week goes on, we're probably going to have mostly sunny skies during the days and maybe some breezy northeast winds,'' said National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Slemmer. ``Friday may be the warmest day, with highs generally in the 70s.''

At the height of the storm Tuesday afternoon, firefighters raced to two stretches of the Los Angeles River, one in Reseda and the other near the Cahuenga Pass, after receiving reports of people awash in the flood control channel. Both sightings turned out to be unfounded.

In one of dozens of crashes, three people were hurt when a trash truck rolled over and hit a big rig Tuesday afternoon in Pacoima, blocking a Golden State Freeway on-ramp for 3-1/2 hours, the California Highway Patrol reported.

CHP officers responded to 183 help calls on Los Angeles County freeways between 5 a.m. and noon, compared to 130 calls one week earlier on a rain-free day.

``Just what we expected - people are bumping and sliding into each other,'' said CHP Officer Dwight McDonald of the West Valley station.

The storm snarled both the morning and evening commutes.

The Grapevine stretch of the Golden State Freeway in the mountains north of Los Angeles was hit with sleet and light snow, prompting the CHP to begin escorting motorists in both directions between Lake Hughes and Laval roads.

More snow was possible in the Grapevine as the snow level was expected to drop to 3,500 feet before dawn today.

``The majority of rain will have moved out of the area by (dawn today) so they still have the possibility of some snowfall, but it probably won't accumulate too much,'' Slemmer said.

In a further respite from the wintry weather, forecasters now say a storm supposed to roll in on Saturday will probably not arrive, said AccuWeather meteorologist Laura Hannon.

``The storm is still out there in the Pacific but it looks like it's going to be too far north to affect Los Angeles,'' Hannon said.

The storm also brought some high winds in the desert and mountains, at times gusting up to 50 mph, Slemmer said. With the departure of the storm, those winds should drop to below 25 mph in those areas by 3 a.m. today.

In the freeway crash in Pacoima, the trash truck was headed north on the Golden State Freeway in the slow lane when it started to fish-tail for an unknown reason, CHP Officer Karen Faciane said. The driver lost control and the truck veered to the right shoulder and overturned onto the on-ramp at Osborne Street, she said.

There it struck a ``double-belly'' dump truck in the on-ramp, blocking access to the freeway, she said.

Two occupants of the trucks went to Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley with minor injuries, Faciane said.

A third went to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center with a possible fractured leg. She did not know which of the injured were the truck drivers.

The wreckage blocked the on-ramp until about 2:30 p.m., while workers tried to right the trucks and haul them away, she said.

Daily News Staff Writer Steve Carney contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

PHOTO (1) Firefighters evacuate the driver from an overturned trash truck Tuesday on the rain-slicked Golden State Freeway in Pacoima.

(2) An injured truck driver gets help from firefighters after his vehicle crashed in Tuesday's storm, blocking a freeway on-ramp.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News